Нi, guys! My name is Antonia Romaker and today I want to talk about learning English with native speakers.
Nowadays it's becoming more and more popular every day.
Instead of just studying English using books and different materials
you practice it with native speakers. You should do both.
Not just studying but practicing too. However there rise a lot of questions here.
How to understand native speakers? When to start? What to focus on?
And mainly where to find them?
First to better understand native speakers try to train your ears.
So take time to listen to fast conversations now and then, watch TV shows,
watch television in general, listen to the radio and songs and things like that, listen to podcasts.
However secondly do not overwhelm yourself. So two minutes will be enough when you start.
Listen to a short podcast or watch a TV show for five minutes or so and then increase the number of minutes.
And thirdly listen with your eyes too. Try to watch the person move,
watch the gestures, expressions, facial expressions and things like that.
It will help a lot.
Now when to start practicing with a native speaker?
When you have somebasic knowledge of how this of that language works you are actually ready.
But do not take too long because you might end up swimming on the floor,
so reading and listening to different materials, but not being able to speak fluently.
Do you remember Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory?
Instead of practicing in water, in the river, in the sea, he was swimming on the floor.
Thirdly what to focus on?
You need to understand that most native speakers who are not teachers
do not tend to be able to explain grammar. So they do not know a lot of grammar,
because everything seems to be so natural to them.
Native speakers know a lot of vocabulary, they have been learning English for years through all their lives.
So they know a lot of phrasal verbs idioms informal contractions, interjections slang and things like that.
You can improve, enlarge your vocabulary a lot with native speakers.
So use it to your advantage.
Now also ask to give a lot of examples, to give you a lot of context.
It will help to remember the vocabulary.
Working with native speakers is all about listening and speaking, actually practicing.
Do not waste your time on reading a lot and writing.
Try to improve your speaking because this is the key point here.
This is the sphere you can improve dramatically with native speakers.
And finally where to find them?
First of all you might use social networks: Instagram, YouTube.
You can communicate there or at least watch videos of native speakers there.
However there's no interaction and that's what we need most of all here.
That's why better use some services which help you
interact with native speakers, communicate - two-way street, not just listening.
I have come across a lot of services and apps like HelloTalk, Italki and some others,
but I didn't like them 100% and recently I have come across a wonderful service, which is called Cambly,
where you can interact with native speakers,
who can explain everything to you: grammar, vocabulary,
they can simply communicate with you and improve your English dramatically.
I really enjoyed myself using this app.
And now let me briefly tell you about it how we can work with it.
First of all you need to understand that you can use this service anywhere you like.
You can be anywhere, on the South Pole if there's an internet connection there.
Also native speakers there are available 24/7,
that is all the time, every second of every minute of every day.
There are native speakers from different countries there: US, UK, Canada, Australia
and they are just a click away.
You can start your practice right away, on the spot, instantly.
Let's imagine you are at the airport and you have 15 minutes to spare.
So you just click and you communicate, instantly.
There are always tutors available.
Or you can make a reservation with a certain tutor.
You can find a topic you would like to discuss, there's a list on the website or in the app.
And you can work on this particular part of the language.
Use your free time to your advantage.
Now let me show you how this service works.
So type cambly.com or find the application in the App Store,
sign in, scroll down to find the available tutors and start your class.
Can I ask you a couple of questions about phrases I don't quite understand? Can you elaborate on them?
Sure!
So the first phrase is 'to be in the zone'. Can you explain?
OK, so to be in the zone is like you're focused.
So it means you're kind of focused and blocking everything else out.
OK, it's quite simple can you give a sample sentence?
Hmm when I'm watching my favorite show don't ask me to help you with anything because I'm in the zone.
Okay thank you very much.
Let's give Charea five stars and five stars for the connection, submit.
And then we can review our classes, watch them again, watch the video, play.
Yeah, how are you? Hi! I'm fine thank you! And you? I'm fine thank you.
By the way if you follow the link in the description box you will have 15 minutes free.
So you can check it out right now. Go there and click.
As for me personally I like practicing with native speakers and I try to communicate with them
whenever I have some free time and I have an opportunity to do so so I advise you to do the same.
Anyway that's it for today I hope that you like this video lesson.
If you have any questions as to learning English or any foreign language with native speakers
feel free to write a comment downstairs, there, in the comment comment section, in the comment box.
And I hope to see you soon! Happy English practice! Bye!
So I just have a couple of minutes to spare, to practise a little bit.
Oh, wow, so I'll have to ask you...